Touch
by Indigo Arcangel
Summary: Before that moment on the docks, Tigress had never been hugged in her life. It made her curious...(Short fluffy one-shot (now a two-shot!))
1. Chapter 1

**Haven't seen the third movie yet, as it's still not out in the UK, but I was re-watching the second movie and that paralysed look that Tigress got when Po hugged her...it gave me ideas. Enjoy!**

 **...**

Tigress wasn't sleeping. She wasn't worried about attackers. So far, the trip back from Gongmen City had been perfectly uneventful – a welcome reprieve from the chaos that had been the final battle against Lord Shen's army. The slow bobbing of the water underneath the boat had acted like the rocking of a mother's arms to the rest of the Five, fuelling their exhaustion, and quickly lulling them to slumber. Po was asleep too, of course, though Tigress knew he'd never needed an excuse for a nap.

But Tigress couldn't sleep. Her mind was a-flurry with anxious curiosity. Her arms held each other, as she rubbed her own fur with her paws, up and down, up and down, over and over again, as if she could regain the feeling with the motion. She looked over toward the other side of the boat.

Po's large, furry bulk rose up and down rhythmically, in perfect synchronisation with the light bobbing of the boat. Tigress remembered being surprised when she'd found out that Po _didn't_ snore – the first impressions he had made all those months ago still made her assume that he was far more stereotypically bumbling than he actually was. Of course, after what she'd personally seen him pull off against Lord Shen's weapon, she wouldn't be making such assumptions again in a hurry. Underneath the juvenile manner and the voracious appetite was someone who'd proven themselves to be quick on the uptake and surprisingly wise.

But that wasn't what her mind was fixed on. Her paws went up and down, up and down her body.

Tigress had never been hugged before. Master Shifu was, to all intents and purposes, her adoptive father, and he had always cared for her growth and well-being, just as she had always looked up to his knowledge and strength, but he had always done so in a cold, detached manner that had made considering such affectionate ideas and impossibility. He had become brighter of heart since Tai Lung's defeat, thankfully, but as she'd noticed with his own interactions with Po, he still wasn't one for physical contact.

When she had embraced Po in Gongmen prison, it was the first time she had ever put her arms around someone else in her life. She wasn't surprised that the Five had been dumbstruck.

But that had been nothing. It had seemed necessary at the time. A gesture of sympathy. The sort of thing you do for friends. And importantly, _she_ had been in control.

It was entirely different being hugged by someone else.

Po's arms had been wet and cold, but she'd hardly noticed. As they'd pulled her in, she'd frozen, petrified. She'd felt something that she'd only previously known when she'd fought Tai Lung. When she'd lost.

She'd felt powerless.

And yet, for some reason, it hadn't felt so bad.

She was 'hard-core', as Po put it. She wasn't supposed to feel anything. But she did feel _that_.

Her paws went up and down, up and down, as she gazed restlessly at the slumbering panda, the boat sailing on in to the night.

…

A week had passed since then. It was midnight, the moon full in the sky. The rest of the five had finished their evening meditation and were sound asleep. Thankfully, they had been granted a small respite from their daily regimen in light of what they'd accomplished in Gongmen. Only for the day, though – none of the Five wanted to go soft.

Tigress stood outside Po's door. Now that she'd got this far, she was petrified, rooted to the spot. She felt like an idiot. She was a warrior, she was 'hard-core', and here she was scared of stepping through the threshold in to someone's room!

She sighed, letting her forehead bump lightly against the paper thin walls. She had to do this. She'd been trying to get her mind off what had happened all week, to no avail. This was the only way she would know. She could do this. She _would_ do this.

With a swift movement of her paw, the paper-thin door slid open. Po slept on a far-too-small mat in the corner of the small room, which was otherwise bare. Unlike the Five, this wasn't because he had given up worldly possessions – Tigress had seen his...'action figures' in person. She smirked slightly as she remembered his attempts to deny ownership of the very skilfully carved model of herself that Mr Ping had been holding.

Lying there, in the dark, he looked so...at peace. Made sense, of course – he had literally achieved 'inner peace' just days ago. Tigress couldn't hold back the creeping feeling of envy. She was strong, fearless, and despite all that he had learned, she still kicked Po's butt in sparring. But it would be a long time before she felt anything resembling peace.

She walked briskly over to where the sleeping panda lay. Then, in a swift movement, she lay down. Her eyes darted from side – if one of the Five did wake up and saw her, she'd never hear the end of it.

Po was laying on his left side as he slept. His face was turned towards her. She could feel his breath lightly tickling the hairs on her head. Trying to make as little noise as possible, she slowly shuffled over, placed a paw over her over Po's limp arm, and ever so gently, hoping that the impression he gave of being a deep sleeper did indeed prove true, dragged it over on top of her chest. The slumbering panda made no indication that he had been roused.

Tigress lay there, stiff as a board, Po's arm draped over her front, nervously glancing at his face. Then she groaned. This was stupid. What exactly did she expect from this?

Abandoning the whole misguided endeavor, she started rising to get up, but almost yelped as Po's arm suddenly yanked her towards him with unexpected strength. Her face was pushed in to his neck as she felt his other arm reach around her back. A red-hot blush warmed her cheeks in response to her feeling of panicked mortification, her breath hitching in her throat. If she just stayed perfectly quiet...Thankfully, Po made no indication of alertness beyond what sounded like very light mumbling in his dreams.

However, it only took a few moments for Tigress mood to calm as she slowly realised that one immediate impression that they had had about Po was very true – he was extremely cuddly. His overconsumption of dumplings made him feel like he was a very large one himself, but a lot warmer. Tigress' eyelids slowly started to fall as her nose twitched in his fur. He smelt of the kitchen, of salt and smoke. She found her paws reaching around Po's large body as she pressed herself further in to his soft chest.

It felt nice. And as the corners of her eyes started to moisten, she realised, it also felt weirdly nostalgic. A tiny smile edged at the corners of her lips. Just as her mind gave in to slumber, it gave out one last, amused thought.

'S _o much for hardcore...'_

 **...**

 **Hope you enjoyed, and any feedback would be appreciated. :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, all! So a couple people said they'd like to see Po wake up, so now the one-shot is a two shot. Meant to get this finished weeks ago, but some annoying medical issues have been getting in the way (nothing severe, just disruptive.) They've also prevented me from seeing KFP3 (Argh!). I'm not planning on any more chapters, unless KFP3 gives me some inspiration, but hopefully this is plenty good regardless. Enjoy :)**

 **...**

Po had been having a good dream. The great Radish army had been reduced to mushy lumps by his fists of righteous fury, and he had gained the favour of the Dumpling Emperor's daughter, who had proclaimed him the most handsome panda in all of China. As she leapt, or rather bounced, in to his arms, he was feeling pretty good about himself...until he realised that dumplings weren't usually this furry.

Po's eyes blinked open, his brain slowly registering the sight before him, before he froze as he realised that that sight was the harbinger of imminent death. Orange, whiskery, pretty-but-he'd-never-sare-say-it-to-her-face death.

Tigress' face was buried in to his chest. Her body rose up and down on his stomach as he breathed. Or at least, it had been doing, until the shock had stopped Po breathing entirely.

His mind sparked like fireworks, trying to work out what series of events could have possibly led to this moment. The only conclusion that he could come to that was remotely plausible was that maybe he'd had a bit too much for dinner – maybe it had upset his sleep. So he had sleepwalked in to Tigress' room and...proceeded to use her as a makeshift cuddle-toy.

He was doomed. It would be slow and it would be painful and there would be no body left afterwords.

Daylight was glowing through the paper walls. If Po knew anything about Tigress, it was that she had a very punctual biological clock – he didn't have long if he wanted to avoid evisceration. He tried very slowly to extricate his left arm from underneath her, but she seemed to respond by subconsciously squeezing tighter around him, making him grimace as he felt his ribs creaking under the pressure.

Po wondered what they'd say at his eulogy.

With wide eyes, he looked back down at the woman who who was latched on to him like a limpet. That's when he realised something – the restful way that her eyes were closed, her mouth slightly open, each light breath she made tickling him just under the chin, the edges of her lips curling slightly in a content smile...she looked adorable. Po had described Tigress as many things in the past: cool, awesome, dangerous, scary, beautiful (when it hadn't been life-threatening to do so)...but cute? That was certainly a new one.

Po lightly brushed his free paw across the fur on her cheek. He had to suppress a chuckly of amusement as her face scrunched up slightly at his touch. Seeing Tigress this relaxed was surreal. For a moment, he wondered if he'd ever actually woken up.

That's when her eyelids opened, and orange eyes met emerald.

They sprang from each other, Po scrabbling backward in to the wall until his head hit a wooden beam with a loud thunk. Tigress' movement had been so swift, an onlooker would have believed she had simply teleported in to the middle of the room.

'Please don't hit the face!' Po squeaked in terror. Tigress said nothing. After some very tense moments, Po stopped flinching in preparation for his inevitable demise, and peered hesistently over the arms he was using to shield himself. Time became still as two very wide pairs of eyes stared at each other. Po didn't quite register that Tigress looked just as afraid as he was. Then she shook her head and cleared her throat.

'Apologies, Dragon Warrior, uh, Po...uhm...' Po's expression of fear turned in to one of befuddlement as Tigress tripped over her own words. '...I was in possession of a curiosity that, uh, tha-that needed rectifying, and well...now I have so sorry for the imposition anyway I have to wash my qipao maybe I'll see you at dinner maybenotokaybyethen.'

Tigress dashed out the door and down the hall so fast that Po could hear the sound of air being displaced in her wake. He blinked, dumbfounded. Had _Tigress_ just had a _freakout_?

Then he realised that he was actually in Tigress room, not his own, and his brain promptly broke.

…

Po knew he was right as soon as he heard the muffled yells from a distance. He should have thought of it earlier. After searching the training hall, the kitchen, the pantry, the meditation hall, and finding no trace of the bemusingly out of character feline, Po had thought back – back to the conversation they'd had on the way to Gongmen - and he'd realised that all he'd need to do was follow the noises of Tigress practising.

As he'd entered the forest, he'd heard the thick smacks of open palms on bark as they reverberated in the air. Po's stealth technique had improved, thanks to a bit of one-on-one tutoring from Tigress herself, and as he approached he gradually let the surface area of each foot spread across the ground with every step.

Approaching the clearing, he spied Tigress, coiled in to a ready stance, before she executed a triple kick that made the sound of cracking wood echo in the air and left three perfect foot-sized imprints in the bark. Po could almost swear that the tree was leaning slightly at the point of impact. He watched, entranced, as Tigress continued to strike over and over, like the indomitable will of lightning, before he finally, hesitantly, cleared his throat.

'So, uh...' Po rubbed the back of his head as Tigress froze mid punch, '...going for another twenty years?'

Tigress' fist slowly lowered, before, with a sigh, she let her forehead pitch forward, resting it on the bark.

'...you didn't tell Viper, did you?' She mumbled. Po started to wring his hands.

'No, I didn't. Wh-what was-'

'Or monkey?'

Po rattled off names with his fingers. 'I didn't tell Crane, Mantis, or Master Shifu, and I _especially_ didn't tell monkey.'

'Small miracles...' Tigress turned around, leaning her back on the tree, her arms folded. She made an act of looking very fascinated by the ground in front of her, but the way her eyes would involuntarily dart to Po's face and back to floor again meant he wasn't fooled.

'...Well?'

Po started. He'd come to ask her about things, and yet he already felt like _he_ was being interrogated.

'...Did you walk in to my room last night?' Po wrung his hands as he talked, glancing at Tigress nervously from under his eyebrows. 'To...uh... _cuddle_...with me?'

Tigress expression seemed to twitch in some approximation of a flinch, before she simply nodded.

'...Uhhh, okay...' Po muttered, scratching his head. The very idea of Tigress willingly cuddling up to him in the middle of the night was proving a bit too difficult for Po to grasp. 'Did you, like, need a blanket, or...'

'Like I said earlier...' Tigress visibly steeled herself, before facing Po with an even stare. 'I was curious.'

Po blinked. 'Oh. Um. Right!' He tried to sound confident, but in reality, his brain was still doing somersaults just trying to comprehend what she even meant by "curious". 'So...did it feel any better?' He asked experimentally, tapping his fingers together.

Tigress eyebrow raised and her eyes widened in to an expression Po interpreted as puzzled, and yet it still terrified him to the bone.

'You know...', he continued, sweating buckets, 'than the others? Like, Crane's probably better when it comes to coverage – those wings could work well as a blanket. I don't see how it would work with mantis, but he _is_ pretty good with massages-'

'I had not cuddled with anyone in my life before last night.'

Po's brain ground to a halt as all his rationalisations – his ideas that maybe she just happened to be an infrequent hugger, that this was secretly normal behaviour for her and there was actually nothing weird going on at all – were dashed. Then he began to stutter as the full implications of her statement hit him.'...Oh. S-So, I was-'

'The first person I have ever cuddled, yes.'

Po was glad that he was covered in fur, otherwise he was certain he'd be radiating pink at this point. 'Was it...you know...' He scratched at the back of his neck. '...good?'

Tigress gazed at the ground with a melancholic expression. '...very.'

Concern entered Po's voice as he noticed the look on her face. 'Are you sure?'

Tigress glanced over at the inquisitive bear, a small smirk curling around the edge of her lip.'...Would the "soft-core" understand?'

'Hah!' Po laughed, for a moment shedding the nerves that he'd felt during the entire conversation. 'I suppose that's fair – my "core" is super-soft!' He answered, gently prodding the top of his stomach. Slowly, he lowered himself to a sitting position, his back to one of the trees, before looking up at Tigress with a warm smile. 'Try me.'

Tigress looked down at him, seeming somewhat off-balance. Po simply raised his eyebrows. She sighed, and gradually lowered herself to the floor. There was a calculated silence.

'I envy you, Po.'

Po was thrown for a loop, stunned by for words that made no sense to him.

'Not that I should be!' Tigress hastily elaborated. 'What happened to you...to your parents...'

Po's eyebrows raised, wary of misinterpreting her words.

'It sounds horrible,' she continued. 'I can't begin to understand how horrible something like that must have been.' She saw Po's confused look, and seemed abruptly ashamed of herself. 'I'm sorry,' she breathed, 'I shouldn't have brought it up.'

She stiffened slightly as a large, black, fluffy paw rested lightly on her shoulder.

'It's okay, Tigress.' Po's smile beamed at her. 'Really – it's in the past. But...why did you say "envy"?'

She looked down again, her words coming out as a murmur. '...Because at least you _know_.' Tigress turned to face him. 'I've told you that I was raised in Bao Gu orphanage...that Shifu took me in.' She wrapped her arms around her knees and brought them to her chest. '...I never knew my parents. I was too young when they...gave me up. I still don't know why they did. I probably never will. That never used to bother me, but last night...' Her took on a curious look. It was as if they were closed whilst still wide open. She leaned her chin on her knees. 'Last night...when you where...' She spoke methodically, as if slowly pushing the words out. 'When you were...holding...me, I ...I felt something. Something I recognised.' Po could see those troubled eyes glaze over, as if looking through time. Her voice lowered to a murmur. 'I think my mother held me like that, once...'

Po was silent. He'd never seen Tigress like this before. Never seen her so...pensive. She was the focused one. _She_ was supposed to help _him_ get over such issues. It had never occurred to him that their situations were so similar. He certainly knew the questions had bothered him just as much before he'd set of for Gongmen. The questions of...what had they looked like? What had happened to them?

...had they not wanted him?

And now, he didn't know what to do. Because it was _Tigress_.

And then his eyes widened. He _did_ know what to do. At least, he thought he did. But would it work? And more importantly, would he still have his head afterwords?

He looked down at Tigress, at the way her eyes seemed to have had all of that spark, that focused, uncompromising fire that she held, scrubbed out of them, and he thought ' _Ah, heck with it._ '

In a single smooth movement, he shimmied over the gap between them, reached his big arms around Tigress' side and pulled her in to his chest. He heard a muffled yelp from the surprised feline and inwardly begged to whatever ancestors were listening that it wasn't the precursor to his death. He looked down, saw two very shocked slitted pupils glaring at him, and whipped his head back away from their penetrating gaze, his cheeks aflame with a combination of fear and embarrassment.

'S-s-so-' Po stammered out quickly, trying to cut Tigress off before she enacted pain upon his person, 'D-do you remember anything?'

Po felt Tigress stiffen slightly, then relax, seemingly realising what he was trying to do. It was evident, however, that _she_ wasn't quite sure what to do. Po rearranged his arms so that they weren't gripping her so tightly, one around her shoulders, the other her waist. Tigress responded by slowly shimmying around until she was on her side. Po could feel the top of her head grazing his chin. He hesitated for a moment, then let his head relax into the fur on the top of her head.

For the longest time, the two of them lay there. Po could feel himself drowning in the warmth of the midday sun, but that wasn't the most pleasant feeling he had at that moment. Holding Tigress was like cradling a flame wrapped in cloth. His eyelids started to droop

'...Incense...'

Po's eyes flittered open. 'S-Sorry?'

'She smelt of incense.' Tigress' voice was barely a whisper. 'And she had a smile like-' Something hitched in Po's throat as he heard Tigress' voice crack. '...A smile that gleamed like a sceptre.' A wistful smile came to her face. 'I've never seen a smile so bright.'

'Really?'

Tigress looked up at Po's voice and found herself greeted with the toothiest, widest and by far goofiest grin she'd ever seen.

'...P-Point taken.' She managed to choke out, a hand placed over her mouth to suppress giggles. She finally stopped shaking and leant back in to Po's fur. '...Thanks, Po. I appreciate it.'

'Anytime,' Po replied, his smile no looking more friendly and less demented, 'although you realise you're going to have to punch that tree a whole lot to get back your hardcore-points.'

'That's fine,' she sighed. 'To be honest, I think I could do without them sometimes.' Her arms crossed and her head fell back, her smile an image of pure tranquility.

'U-Um...' One of Tigress eyes cracked open a Po's voice. 'You know, I wouldn't mind if you, uh, wanted t-to do this again sometime...' Po glanced nervously down. Tigress eyes were slitted, her face a questioning, until her mouth turned up in to a very knowing smirk. It reminded him of when she'd caught him having his little breakdown on the boat. Her eyes closed, and she wriggled back into the comfiness of her previously reclined position.

'Don't tell monkey.'

Po blinked. 'Y-yes ma'am.' His arms went back around her waist, his chin resting atop her shoulder. The two of them let themselves sink in to each other, as the rhythm of each others breathing lulled them both to sleep.


End file.
